(HealthDay News) -- Adults with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) miss, on average, more than three weeks a year in workplace productivity, according to a new global reckoning of the problem.

Altogether, between 3 percent and 4 percent of adults worldwide have ADHD, according to survey data from the World Health Organization (WHO). Researchers say the condition can cause a serious loss of concentration at work due to chronic hyperactivity, forgetfulness and impulsiveness.

But many adult workers with ADHD may not know they have a problem, the team noted.

"While surveying mental disorders around the world, we've interviewed close to 200,000 people in almost 30 countries, and we're discovering that an enormous number of adult workers -- more than 3 percent on average -- have untreated adult ADHD," said study co-author Ron Kessler, a professor of health care policy at Harvard Medical School in Boston. Kessler is also the director of the WHO's World Mental Health Survey Consortium, which is based at Harvard.

"From a societal point of view, it's a pretty big deal, because ADHD affects work performance even more than depression does," he added. "It's more persistent and severe than many mental disorders, and it results in more sick days, more accidents, and more problems interacting with colleagues. So given that employers are increasingly thinking about health care costs in terms of investment opportunities, we think it's useful to point out that it's probably a very smart and profitable business move for employers to screen their workers for ADHD and get them into treatment."

Results of the WHO survey are being published Tuesday in the online edition of the journal Occupational and Environmental Medicine.

Kessler and his colleagues conducted country-by-country ADHD diagnostic assessments on more than 7,000 employed and self-employed workers between the ages of 18 and 44.

The ADHD screenings were held in Belgium, Columbia, France, Germany, Italy, Lebanon, Mexico, the Netherlands, Spain, and the United States. All the participants were also asked to describe their work performance over the prior month.

An average of 3.5 percent of those interviewed had ADHD, a condition whose initial onset typically occurs in childhood. Among Americans, the rate rose to 4.5 percent, Kessler noted.

ADHD was more common among men than women, more common in developed than developing countries (such as Mexico, Lebanon, and Columbia), and more common among blue-collar workers than white-collar professionals. Age did not appear to be associated with ADHD risk.

Very few of the diagnosed patients said they had received any treatment for ADHD in the prior year. In fact, only some of the Dutch and American patients indicated having received any treatment for ADHD, and in those countries only about 3 percent and 13 percent of the Dutch and U.S. workers, respectively, reported any treatment history.

Those diagnosed with ADHD spent more than 22 fewer days per year working compared with non-ADHD workers. This included an average of more than eight days during which ADHD employees said they simply could not carry out their routine tasks; almost 22 days with reduced productivity; and nearly 14 days of reduced quality in the work they produced.

"The fact is that adult ADHD hasn't been on people's radar screens," said Kessler. "The feeling was that somehow magically when kids with ADHD grow up they grow out of it. But this survey shows that this is not the case."

Dr. David W. Goodman, director of the Adult Attention Deficit Disorder Center in Luthersville, Md., agreed that ADHD is an "under-diagnosed and under-recognized psychiatric condition that causes a tremendous amount of disability in the work environment."

And while he supports the idea of screening workers for ADHD, Goodman, who is also an assistant professor of psychiatry at Johns Hopkins University, worries that "identifying workers with ADHD raises the possibility for discrimination."

He also wondered whether people who are diagnosed with the condition, especially in the developing world, would have doctors available to help them.

I don't like the idea of testing people, my boss would have never hired me... except he thinks ADHD is a liberal myth.

This is just an anecdotal train of thought and has no merit beyond that but what the article fails to mention is that a lot of people with ADHD are also capable of bringing an astounding amount of creativity with them. Yes, I may cost my employer in unproductive time but the creativity I have brought to his firm has made it grow exponentially. I, in my unorthodox manner, have taken his business from designing run of the mill schools and hospitals to mega casinos. That's all my creativity that's aloud that.

My boss is the type who sits down with pen and paper and draws, and draws, and draws till he has something that will work. What he does is usually... well, boring. It's functional, but boring. He has no unproductive time but so what, if the end result is staid and stale.

He's always pissed at me because I work completely differently. In all honesty I fuck off. I don't do anything till inspiration strikes, then I'm off like a flash. The thing is though I have mountains of unproductive time. Just the amount I'm on A2A is testament to that fact. However what I deliver is what has aloud the business to grow.

Several months ago I got my ass ate out (and not in the good way) for not sitting down with a piece of paper and working out a design for this bar. I was "wasting time we didn't have", which was true. Most of time I spent on the net looking at A2A, science news sites, Foreign Policy sites, porn and god knows what else. However in the end I came up with fabulous design that the owner liked so well they decided they wanted to design the whole building around this bar and make it the focal point of the whole property. The client was blown over... shouldn't that count for something?

I understand my bosses resentment at the fact he toiled away for weeks on a proposal that the client just, literally, threw on the floor and then decided to redesign the whole building around my two days worth of sketches but come on...

It seems science in this instance, with regard to the article, just ignores creativity for the sake of productivity. What great good is productivity without some measure of incite and new ideas. It's no different for the blue collar worker either. While he's being unproductive and getting distracted that's more than likely the time he may see a problem with the way his company does things and, if aloud, he may suggest a change that could save or make untold amounts.

It's in times away from toil that inspiration and incite are found. I think that fact is lost in the statistical analysis of production and the type of thought this article represents and promotes does nothing but further quell the quality of human kinds creative anima.

I swear, the more I learn about it, the more I think I fit into the ADHD catigory. (At least ADD). When the juices are flowing they are REALLY flowing, when they aren't, well, they just aren't. Focus? What the hell is THAT???It's tough to be unconventional, but to me, if the end result is the same, or in many cases better, what the heck is the problem? I do much better on a job that I get paid piece work for than ones that I get payed by the hour for, just for that reason. I can get a house painted in 2 days most of the time, but it has to happen when I am in the mood. Otherwise it can take a week or longer. I rarely set a time frame for anything, because I can rarely fallow through on it. I have NO sense of time. In fact I have to set my watch to 2pm or I miss getting my little guy off the bus. Dinner is USUALLY arranged to be made, but I rarely start it until my man calls and says he is on his way home. Everyone eats yummy meals, but NEVER at the same time....Again, if the end result is the same...wtf is the problem?

If you are ADD/ADHD there are drugs that could help you. What I wonder is would you want them or are you fine with the way you are? Do you think the drugs could improve your life? Do you think finding and medicating these people, as the article suggests, is beneficial in the long run... to the person or the companies bottom line?For me, I take the meds when I have to, which isn't very often... and that's it. I hate 'em. They make the depression I already suffer from worse. Beyond that they drown my creative thought because I'm hyper focused and just want to keep moving forward. I get sort of this Farragut attitude of "damn the torpedoes full speed ahead!" If I took the meds all the time, sure I would be more productive but the jobs I bring in wouldn't be near as lucrative.

From watching my stepdaughter on the meds, I don't think I would want them. I am for the most part happy with how I work, and so are the people around me. I disappoint myself and them at times, but when I impress, I REALLY impress. It balances out. I find things to do where I can be me. I took an antidepressant for a while, and it helped at first, I got up and got moving, but then it got to where, I didn't get mad at anything. I didn't change, I just did the routine and was ok with it, even when things were bad and I knew change was needed. Definitely not my cup of tea. I can do anything, when "backed into a corner" or when the mood strikes, but can't do shit, when I well, when I can't. (like my list of half finished shit to do.)Do I think it would help the bottom line? No. If you have steady and numb working for you, they aren't going to help with growth, those bursts of inspiration won't be there. I think in the long run, it equals out. Isn't diversity, what drives creativity, and creativity is what makes the bottom line?

I almost think, that if I had to do a regular job, be there at x time, and do the same stuff over and over, I might consider meds just to keep the job. Though, I think home would suffer.Every team needs different things though, you need the oxen, to carry out what ever that spastic little ferret discovers, and you need someone to drive the oxen, and someone to keep the ferret out of trouble, but ... lol...listen to me...were all animals!!! (hehe, and the child molesters should be the little parakeet that goes down first to see if it is poison!!!)I am getting tired of the labels, some of the most mental people on earth are heros now because of their discoveries....

A great way to stay out of trouble is a little game called Bowling for Blowjobs. Anyway, for right now, I kinda like my son on meds for his ADHD. Not that I can't handle his behavior. In fact, he is a very well behaved little guy. He completes tasks now, whereas before, he would start one thing and not finish and then move on to something else. Or he would get extremely frustrated with himself if he couldn't figure out how to put his Legos together and then he would give up. The turning point for me was when he said he didn't know what was wrong with his brain. Now he has put together multiple Star Wars Lego ships and model cars etc. And that's just the fun stuff. His grades were always A's and B's, but it would take hours for him to do his homework and then we would always have to make corrections to it. Now he does it all in a nice amount of time and it needs little to no correcting.On the other hand, he doesn't eat much and he doesn't show much emotion. Like, I sometimes think he is depressed or sad, but he tells me he is not. So, I don't know. I hate having to have him on medication and I hope one day doctors find a better solution. And more importantly I hope I am doing the right thing. It honestly is more difficult 'handling' my son with ADHD than it is my son with Down Syndrome.

"On the other hand, he doesn't eat much..."I don't whether it applies to kids but in adults, all the meds I'm aware of and as I'm sure you know, act as an apatite suppressant.>>>"...and he doesn't show much emotion."That may very well have nothing to do with the ADHD or the meds. I was like that even as a small child (but I do have issues ). I seldom ever cried, showed pain, or much of anything. I don't know, at least I don't think, a stoic nature has any way been a hamper to my enjoying life. Of course, your talking to someone for who dysthymic disorder has been a part of life since about the onset of puberty... so my view may be a little warped.Is the reserved display of emotion something new? Is it a change?>>>"And more importantly I hope I am doing the right thing."You are. Doing the right thing is doing the best you can with the information you have.>>>"...whereas before, he would start one thing and not finish and then move on to something else."Hey, I'm still like th....

I don't whether it applies to kids but in adults, all the meds I'm aware of and as I'm sure you know, act as an apatite suppressant.Yes, it does apply to kids as well. He eats very little for lunch so I try to fix a large breakfast and dinner for him.>>>"...and he doesn't show much emotion.">>>That may very well have nothing to do with the ADHD or the meds.It's definitly the meds. The good thing about ADD/ADHD meds is they are in and out of your system the same day. I can tell when the meds start to kick in and when they start to leave his system. He is very happy and I can see it on his face before and after the meds. During the meds his face is kinda expressionless and he just doesn't seem happy unless, say he is watching a funny movie....then I will see him smile and laugh. Other than that, his facial expressions are blank. I even brought it up to his ADHD doctor. I said how I thought he was depressed (my son was in the same room) and the whole time he had a little smile on his face and giggled here and there....which he never does when his medicine is working. The doctor basically laughed at me and said he looked fine to him and tried to reassure me if my son says he is happy then he must be happy.

Kids are usually honest about that stuff. Until they are teenagers. Then, they are just confuzzled! That is what I am talking about though, if I had to be in a job that required my focus for hours on end, I might consider meds, IF I were even ADHD. There are times where I wonder if it is something of perfectionism, in that if I can't work out every last detail, I just can't complete it...who knows. I like the way I am, MOST of the time. It is when it goes on for days, that I get all frustrated with it.